Pipe-organ foot



No. 608,704. Patented Aug. 9` |898. F. MCCULLUM.

PIPE ORGAN FOOT.

(Appl-intima dlad Jan. 29, 1898.)

Fig?.

NO Model.)

[7M/@mfr Wwf@ llc 005km UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

FENELON MCOOLLUM, OF MANSFIELD, CONNECTICUT.

PIPE-ORGAN FOOT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 608,704, dated August 9, 1898.

Application filed January 29, 1898. Serial Noi 668,387. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that l, FENELON MCCOLLUM, a citizen of the United States, residing in Mansfield Depot, in the county of Tolland, and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pipe- Organ Feet, of which the followingis a specicatiou.

This invention relates to improvements in organ pipe-feet 5 and it has for its main object the provision, as a new article of manufacture, of an improved pipe-foot for organs in which all of thc resonant qualities peculiar to wood pipes may be retained, while securing all of the advantages of metal construction as to the toe portion of the organ pipefoot.

One ofthe main objects of my present invention is therefore to furnish an improved pipe-foot having a metallic toe or tip separate from the body of the pipe-foot and of such construction and material that the area of the usual opening in the point of the toe may be varied at will to modify the wavelength of the note to be sounded by the pipe to which the foot and the toe are secured, and hence to change the tone itself in accordance with the well-known laws of phonics I prefer to make use of a pipe-foot having a toe the body of which tapers gradually toward the opening therein7 so that the metal at the extreme toe or tip will be relatively thin, and hence easily removed or otherwise shaped to vary the area of such opening; and l deem it an essential feature of my invention to form the metallic toe in this manner, and not only to fashion it into such a shape externally that it will seat itself readily in the usual concaved recess in the upperside of the wind-chest of the organ, but also to give to thc interior of this metallic toe such a contour as will result in a gradual tapering of the thickness of the walls from the butt to the point of the toe, and thus provide for regulating the tone of the pipe, as may be necessary, and also for sealing the joint with the windchcst and assuring a close fit of the smoothsurfaced and heavy toe.

In the preferred construction the organ pipe-toe is made of soft metal and is cast around the lower end of the body portieri of a wooden pipe-foot in order that a tight and permanent connection between the wooden body and the metal toe may be secured and maintained.

It will be apparent, of course, that when the soft metal is cast about a wooden former in this manner practically all of the moisture in the wood near the surface thereof will be expelled from the pores of the thin tubular pipe-foot, and consequently the wood will at once contract considerably, and when cool will form a ferrule or toe of less size than would be required 'for the normal size of theend of the pipe-foot. As the fusingpoint of the soft metal is comparatively low and as the metal cools and hardens rapidly, the surface of the wood organ-foot will not bc charred, but will be simply dried or scorched slightly, and will tend to resume its normal condition at once on the cooling of the metal. This will result, of course, in time in thc absorption by the wood at this point of the normal amount of moisture, and hence .the woodwill expand considerably within the metal toe, and the two parts will be permanently connected by an extremely tight joint in such a manner that after changes in the character. of the wood, due to changes of moisture or the like, will not affect to any appreciable extent the efficiency of the joint between the parts.

Another important result attained by this construction is that the lower end of the tubular wooden pipe-foot is held so securely that it cannot expand or split, and the toe itself being of metal will not be swollen or rcduced in size by such slight changes in temperature as may occur, whereas variations in temperature and moisture are liable to affect injuriously wooden toes of pipe-feet.

In the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification, Figure l is a side elevation of an organ pipe-foot embodying my present improvements, and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same.

Similar characters designate like parts in both iigures of the drawings.

As before stated, my improved organ pipefoot is of composite construction and forms a unitary structure which is in the nature of a new article of manufacture. In the construction illustrated herein this pipe-foot comprises two main parts, one of which is the IOO body portion of the foot and is indicated by F, while the other member is the toe proper and is designated in a general way by T.

The body portion F will be of the usual construction and will preferably be of wood or of similar material having the resonant qualities of wood and ordinarily will have a reduced upper end or neck, such as 2, adapted for connection to the lower end of an organpi pe in the well-known manner. At the lower end thereof the body portion F will be so shaped as to permit it to be secured easily and firmly to the metallic toe or heavy tip at the extreme end of the pipe-foot. The manner in which this lower end of the body portion may be fastened can be varied at will; but a simple form of connection is by means of a locking membersubstantially in the form of a tenon such as shown herein, this tenon or locking member lying entirely within the periphery of the body portion F and having diverging walls adapted to interlock with the inner walls of the metal tip.

The locking member or tenon is designated by 3 and the diverging walls thereof by 3'. Obviously at the point of junction of the locking member with the main portion or body F there will be formed a stop-wall, such as 4, against which the metal of the extreme inner or butt end of the toe T may engage to lock the toe and the body relatively to each other and also improve the joint. Moreover, the periphery of the toe, after it has been secured in place by casting onto the body, will be smoothed off to form a flush joint between the wood and the toe and prevent catching of the metal or of the wood upon the rackplate of the organ when placing or removing the organ-pipes.

The tip T, as before stated, is attached to the body portion of the pipe-foot directly by casting said toe around the locking-tenon 3.

Any suitable mold may be employed for recciving the soft metal of the casttip, which metal, it should be understood, will have a low fusing-point, and will preferably be lead or some suitable composition containing this metal, and any suitable form'of core maybe employed in connection with the mold for the exterior of the cast toe. This core and the external mold should of course be so shaped as to form a toe having Walls of graduallydecreasing thickness toward the point of the toe, as hereinbefore stated. This gradual def crease in the thickness of the walls is clearly indicated at 5, Fig. l2, from which it will be seen that the extreme tip or point of the toe, at the sides of the usual opening 6 therein, is very thin and may be readily shaped by suitable tools to increase or decrease slightly the area of the opening 6, and thereby correspondingly modify the amplitude of vibration of the wave representing the note to be sounded by the pipe to which the toe and its foot are connected.

An organ pipe-foot constructed in the manner herein described is capable of manufacture at such a low cost as not to prevent its use or adoption, and, moreover, the heavy tip of soft metal gives stability to the lower end or toe of the pipe-foot and assures the maintenance of the proper air-tight fit between-the pipefoot and the conical opening or step in the wind-chest.

As an article of manufacture a pipe-foot constructed in this manner is much more satisfactory when cast onto a wooden body portion than when a metal tip of any other type is used, as there is no other known way of fastening the metal toe to a vwooden tip that will secure a permanently tight joint and at the same time be inexpensive.

Having described my invention, I claiml. As an article of manufacture, an organ pipe-foot comprising a Wooden body portion, and a separate soft-metal toe cast around the lower end of said body portion and thereby firmly secured to'said body.

2. As an article of manufacture, an organ pipe-foot comprising a wooden body portion, having at its lower end a locking member, and a separate soft-metal toe cast around the locking member and thereby iirmly secured to said body.

3. As an article of manufacture, an organ pipe-foot comprising a wooden body portion and a separate soft-metal toe cast around the lower end of said body portion and thereby firmly secured to said body, and having walls of decreasing thickness from the butt to the point of the toe, and also having an opening in the point of the toe.

FENELON MCCOLLUM.

Witnesses:

JOHN L. HUNTER, MARY L. HUNTER.

IOO 

